Being overweight affects me in so many ways. My self esteem suffers because of it, which may domino into wanting to overeat (and as I’ve mentioned before I do seem to have issues here anyway). But since turning 31, and now approaching 32, I’ve felt more the need to try and reverse the damage I’ve done. Nobody lives forever, but living past 50 would be nice. With a family history of heart disease, cancer and high cholesterol, I should already have been more careful.
So here comes the full disclosure. I’m 6 feet / 1.85 m tall, I weigh 256 pounds / 116 kilos / 18 st 4 lb which puts my BMI at 33.92 (obese). According to my electronic scales, for which I have no other reference, I have 42% body fat.
Not good.
So where do I go from here?
Well for some, there are crash diets, extreme plans of skipping this or eating more of that. The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferris recommends something called the Slow Carb Diet, which says more or less that for 6 days a week you eat protein-based meals with vegetables (no fruit, no starchy foods or sugars) and then binge on the seventh. Sounds simple, but any deviation from this structure may mean failure.
Additionally, some sources (such as this article) suggest that unless you still account for calories, you won’t lose weight. Ferris’s take is that the calories aren’t as important as what sticks – so the plan includes other tricks, such as using doses of cinnamon to slow the speed food exits the stomach, reducing the immediate blood sugar load thus causing less to be stored as fat. He also recommends doses of policosanol, ALA (alpha-lipoic acid), garlic and green tea extract. These have various effects on cAMP, GLUT-4 etc. to direct energy into muscle tissues rather than fat cells, and helping old fat cells to die.
Interesting scientifically, but the supplements described amount to at least £40 for a month’s supply. Is this a small price to pay to reduce body fat and increase life expectancy?
Also, Tim Ferris is a focussed and methodical person. I am more prone to be swayed by my moods. There are painful things going on in my life that I don’t have good coping mechanisms for, and super-rigid diets aren’t what I’m looking for. I’m not looking for a quick fix, I want to make changes that I can stick with.
I am still fascinated by the 4HB approach, and there are some valuable concepts to take away no matter what dietary changes you’re trying. The big one for me is to not get too hung up on weight. I’m getting a tape measure, and will keep track of my bicep, thigh, waist and hip measurements. Yes, weight is important, but you might be gaining muscle too.
I’m starting to ramble now, so suffice it to say that I’m just going to try some things out. My experiment:
- Calorie counting (using the MyFitnessPal app)
- Higher protein meals (especially at breakfast)
- Recording weight, Total Inches (the four measurements above and their sum)
- Blogging about it (for accountability)
And we shall see what comes of it.
Those bullet points are good things to take action on. Calorie counting is good to learn food, but after a while you need to be able to judge it. Keep off the processed carbs and stuff loads of veggies and nuts in your diet with protein, you wont go wrong. I live this way and don’t miss processed carbs at all. Nice honest post 🙂